Rain, Rain Go Away
by Sable Aegean
Summary: Lance's own strength may be his undoing when a simple diplomatic mission goes wrong.


Lance's POV

Lance was still yawning by the time he left his room, suited up and ready for the mission. He and the gang were leaving for planet Thonnus, a civilization that had made some of the greatest advances in spaceflight in the known universe. They were going to attempt an alliance, as such powerful ships would be great to help in the fight against the Galra. Allura and Coran had said that they were very friendly with the Thonnian people-at least, they had been 10,000 years ago. They wanted to seem as friendly as possible, so the group wasn't even taking the lions with them.

"Lance, get out here!" A young voice yelled down the hall, for what must have been the third time. It was Pidge, who in addition to being tired, was impatient about meeting such a technologically advanced people. Lance finally meandered down the hall and to the exit, where the other paladins gathered.

"Look who finally decided to join us." Keith said, his voice rough with sleep.

"Looking this good takes effort, okay? Effort that you obviously aren't willing to put in." Lance fired back.

"Don't start." Came Shiro's voice, also tired. The paladins chatted lazily as they waited for Coran and Allura to join them. When the two finally arrived, Coran had a pensive look on his face, Allura just looked confused.

"What's wrong?" Pidge asked.

"The scanners aren't showing any signs of life here. This place is supposed to be a booming metropolis and there is absolutely no one here. Except for us." Coran explained.

"Maybe there's something wrong with our scanners." Lance put in.

"Maybe they don't want to show up on the scanners. With Zarkon around, maybe they would have cloaked themselves or something." Hunk guessed. Coran shook his head.

"Have any of you even glanced out the window?" Coran exclaimed, gesturing towards the window, "A hub of spaceflight should have flying cars and busy people. There is not a soul out there. Even the buildings look neglected."

"Well, let's get out there and see what clues we can find about where they went." Shiro said immediately. He was always quick to act. Lance, on the other hand, thought there might be something more to the sudden disappearance of the Thonnians, but didn't say a word.

Coran began his usual spiel: "Just because there's breathable oxygen doesn't mean you should go without your helmets. Don't take your helmets off unless-"

"Yeah, yeah we know," Pidge cut in, "But we'll cover more ground if we split up."

"Pidge is right." Shiro agreed, "we'll go in groups. I'll take Keith, Allura takes Hunk, Pidge take Lance. Coran, can you stay and watch the scanners in case anything changes?"

"Yes, but I should probably warn you-"

"We'll be fine, Coran." Shiro admonished.

The air outside was gusty and oppressive. Even though Lance was wearing his full suit, it almost stung.

Pidge's POV

Lance did not know when to shut his mouth. This was something Pidge had know since the Garrison, yet it still surprised her every time. He wasn't much help gathering clues about what happened to the people of Thonnus, and Pidge wasn't making much headway on her own. The two had noticed screens placed at every intersection of streets, but couldn't decipher what they were used for, or what was written on them. Coran had told them that the technology on Thonnus was like that of the Alteas, but he and Allura had been out of it for 10,000 years. Their tech, while leaps and bounds ahead of Earth's, was obviously going to be dated compared to that of the Thonnians. As she worked, (read: fiddled with wires) she realized that Lance's seemingly incessant chatter, well, ceased. Pidge turned around to find Lance leaning against the pole of what looked somewhat like a traffic light, only the poll went up about five hundred feet. He stared almost wistfully up at the odd orange sky and gathering clouds.

"It's gonna rain." he said, his voice strangely quiet. Pidge scanned the landscape. Once upon a time, the city may have been beautiful, spiraling glass buildings, strange but beautiful plants littered the streets, but the ground was covered in a darkly colored sand, billowing up from wind, and the buildings were and bent withered with age. The sky was cloudy, but rain was unlikely.

"I doubt it." Pidge replied. "Did you know that in Lower Egypt -y'know, near the pyramids-they get less than an inch of rainfall every year?" Pidge's point was easily disproven when a drop of rain landed on her head and rolling down the visor of her helmet. "Well. Guess you were right." She returned to fiddling with the screen under the traffic light.

"Did you know that every once in awhile, Egypt floods?" Lance asked in reply, still looking at the sky. Pidge didn't think much of it. Lance had a habit of assuming the worse, which was one thing he and Keith had sort of halfway bonded over. Someone gets turned around on the way back to the ship? 'They must have been captured by Galra soldiers.' Pidge found their gloom sessions rather amusing, as did the rest of the crew. The rain began falling in earnest, and Pidge didn't realize what was wrong until Lance winced. "It stings!" He exclaimed.

"How could you-" Pidge began, because Lance was wearing his suit and couldn't feel the rain through it, and-and now she could feel it too, the rain was actually _burning through their suits._

"Shiro-" Pidge turned her comm on immediately.

"Pidge the-" Shiro's voice was replaced with static as the comm burned. The rain wasn't burning like fire it was stinging, almost like acid. Lance dragged her under the cover of the nearest of the dilapidated buildings as the winds kicked up. The door ( or what could be assumed to be a door) wouldn't open, and Lance went for his bayard and shot the door open. The force of it shook the whole building. Pieces of the ceiling fell, Pidge raced forward to yank Lance out of the way, her heart pounding in her ears and her skin still burning with the sting of the rain. She felt her feet slip from under her and fell on the cold hard ground. The building groaned and under the weight of the storm. Lance pulled her up and fell again himself. Violent tremors shook the building. The ceiling was going to give way. Pidge was wobbling from the fall, but she reached out pull Lance up. Both of their suits were in tatters, but Lance's had taken the brunt of the storm, shielding Pidge when they'd walked in. Lance couldn't drag himself up. Pidge had been scared, of course, but an extreme panic began to overtake her. If Lance really couldn't get up, she couldn't carry him, and they might not remember how to get back, and the building was gonna fall any second and-

"GO!" Lance yelled.

"No, what- I'll carry you-" Pidge stuttered.

"Pidge, you can't. And I can't move, so just GO!" Lance's voice was filled with a commanding power that Pidge had never heard.

"I don't want to leave you here." Pidge felt hot tears running down her cheeks.

"I know you don't but you have to, now GO!" He screeched, his voice beginning to shake.

"We'll come back for you, I swear." Guilt burned within her almost as badly as the rain had as she turned on her heels, braced for the pain, and raced out the door.

As she ran, a crash behind her made her cringe painfully and she prayed to every god she'd ever hear of. _We'll come back for you, I swear._ As buildings fell and the rain burned her skin and blurred her vision, she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep her promise.

Pidge forced her mind into auto-pilot, she tried her jet pack. It was barely working, but it might just get her to the ship. The rain burned like a thousand shots at once. Pidge hated shots. She used to thrash about getting shots when she was younger, sometimes she'd have to be sedated for a flu shot. Even though she was older now, she still cried silent tears when she went to the doctor. The distraction of the memories somehow dulled the pain, but Pidge knew she needed to focus to find her way back. She zeroed in on the landmarks they'd passed on their way there. Pidge forged on, fighting everything in her that screamed to look back, even though Lance was far behind now. She thought of the biblical story where God had destroyed the city of Sodom for being sinful, and told a man named Lot and his family to escape and never look back. Lot's wife looked back and turned to a pillar of salt.

Pidge would not be like Lot's wife. She would not look back.

Keith's POV

Keith had faced the storm himself. He'd felt the rain blister his skin, and the sting of the sand in his eyes. But none of that prepared him for the sight of Pidge when she stumbled into the ship's bridge. Her suit was tattered, she was covered in cuts and bruises and the rain blisters. She had tears streaming down her face. And she was alone. Keith jumped from his seat and rushed over, but Shiro grabbed his arm. "Let Coran tend to her."

"Where's Lance?" Keith asked immediately. Pidge tried to speak through the pain.

"He-he" Pidge was heaving for air, "He said to leave him." The tears on her face fell anew. "I couldn't carry him, I tried-"

"You left him there?" Keith bellowed against all sense. "You could've called us, we could've saved him-"

"The comms were down-"

"You still could've done SOMETHING! ANYTHING!" Keith slammed his fist against the wall. He could feel his anger burning inside of him, and in the back of his mind he he knew it wasn't her fault but she left him, she left him, shelefthimlefthimlefthimlefthim. And if Keith had been there, HE WOULDN'T HAVE LEFT HIM. Shiro pulled Keith back and Keith struggled against him as he pulled Keith back towards his own room to cool off.

"It's not her fault, Keith."

"She could have saved him!"

"It's not like he's dead yet!" Shiro was not in the habit of raising his voice, so his tone made Keith try to calm his easily lit temper.

"We have to go find him." Keith resolved after a few moments.

"We can't go back out there yet, it's too dangerous." Sometimes Keith couldn't stand Shiro's rationality. Sometimes risks have to be taken for the good of the people you care about!

"Fine." Keith conceded. Shiro was obviously suspicious of how easily Keith stepped down, but he left it alone.

"Alright. Join us when you've cooled down. We'll probably be in the bridge." Shiro walked out. Keith sat down on the bed and dropped his head in his hands. Lance was an essential part of Voltron, every single one of them was needed to make things work and-and Keith wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it if Lance died. He was sure he'd be distraught if it was any of them, but Lance… Keith didn't want to dwell on it too much. There was too much to do. He knew none of the others would help him, Shiro had probably advised the all against taking action. But Keith knew one person who would help.

Keith sat cross-legged in front of the stasis pod in the infirmary, waiting for Pidge to wake up. The others weren't expecting to see her until morning, but Keith knew Pidge was a fast-healer (and he ramped the speed up a bit on the pod). Pidge stumbled out bleary eyed after about 2 and a half hours. As soon as she noticed Keith, she recoiled, as if expecting to get hit, and Keith felt instantly guilty all over again.

"Look, I'm sorry." He said it straight out, as if he was ripping off a bandage.

"Okay?" Pidge had gone from slightly frightened to irritable in a matter of seconds. "And why couldn't that wait until I was on my feet again?"

"I need your help." Keith explained shamelessly.

"Of course you do. You're not sorry at all are you-" Pidge had stepped out of the stasis pod and was headed for the corridor, but Keith caught her arm.

"I really am sorry. You did what you had to, Pidge, and I overreacted-I just don't want to lose anyone."  
"Yeah okay," Pidge sat down on the edge of one of the beds in the infirmary, "Enough angsty apologies, what do you need?" This was one of the things Keith loved about Pidge. How easily she understood him.

"I'm gonna go out and search for Lance." He explained. Pidge looked like she wanted to object, but just sighed.

"Let me go get ready, meet you in the bridge in ten."

Lance's POV

Everything in him burned and churned and he hated it. He was the Blue Paladin, he was water, he was the cool rush of ocean spray, he was the fun of spraying your siblings with the hose out back, and he was drying up. He attempted to assess the damage, though he could barely breath under the weight. The crash had dropped a piece of the ceiling on his back and pinned his legs. His arms, which had taken the worst of the storm, weren't much better off. He turned his head slightly. He could her his neck crack and stopped any further attempts at movement. Tears fell down his face, stinging his wounds. He couldn't shake the gut-twisting feeling that this was it. Lance had always believed in never going down without a fight, and there he was, defeated by the very thing that encompassed everything he was. Rain. He couldn't write anything down; He didn't have anything to write with and probably couldn't move his arms if he did. Keith had once told him about a button you could activate to record on the shoulder of his suit. He attempted to cock his head to the side and pressed the button. After a few painful tries, he finally heard the half-hearted click of the broken mechanism. Lance thought for a moment. "This is the last will and testament of Lance Mcclain." That's how those things usually started, right? "I-Um, I've never really thought this through before. So, there's Mami and Papi, Abuelo, Abuela, Rosa, Antoni, Katalin, Lore, Maya, Dario, and Desi. The other paladins of course. Allura and Coran. Let's see, um...Kat and Desi can have my trading cards, as long as they don't bend them out of shape. Mami and Papi should split my college fund with Abuelo and Abuela. Dario can have my pocket knife. Well, I don't know, Keith might like it." He chuckled, "Keith and Dario would get a kick out each other...Rosa gets my jacket from the Garrison, if it's still around somewhere. I hope she gets to fly someday, too. The Musketeers can have the car, if it ever gets finished. Maybe Pidge and Hunk can help them with it. Shiro-" Lance was heaving for air, and decided to stop for the time being. He hit the button with his head again and stopped recording. He knew he probably had a concussion, and going to sleep was probably the worst thing he could do at the moment, but his eyelids were so heavy and just a few minutes was all he needed…

Pidge's POV

Pidge wandered through the decrepit aftermath of the storm with Keith at her side and overwhelming guilt on her back. Yes, Keith had apologized, and yes, there was really nothing else to be done in that situation, but that in no way lessened the guilt. SHe could feel her insides squirming with suspense as they traveled through the ruins. Pidge suddenly felt a spike in her hope. She recognized the traffic pole from before, so then that must be-

"He's in there!" Pidge cried. She didn't know for sure, but it was the only hope they had of finding him in this mess. Keith was already a few feet ahead of her.

Together, they slashed through the ruins and slowly lost hope until they caught of flash of blue. Pidge raced over, and Keith followed. It was Lance's helmet. Keith struggled and pushed a giant piece of the building out of the way. Under it was Lance. Pidge sobbed at the sight of him. He was so small, so utterly defeated. His legs were crushed, his suit had burned away around his arms. Keith pulled Lance's helmet off of his head.

"He's breathing." Keith said after a moment.

"Oh thank god." Pidge fell to her knees next to him. He pulled Lance up and tried to wake him. After a few agonizingly slow minutes, Lance opened his eyes and mumbled something along the lines of "You get the pocket knife." Pidge glanced at Keith, who had tears in his eyes, a thing she had never seen before. He immediately hoisted Lance up on his back, who protested in pain, and set out to head back to the ship.


End file.
